The Journey Continues

 

Boone is 4 1/2 months now and is already enormous. Just guessing but I would bet he's close to 70 lb already. He's on IAM's large puppy food and eats 5 cups a day. Ouch!

Fen's food lasts almost 3 months. Boone's doesn't quite make it a month, I had to get an emergency delivery from Chewy, as we obviously can't just go to the store and buy dogfood. As he has bonded so much to me, more than to Fen, I am having to send him outside more as I don't want him resource guarding me from Fen. I hope to pick up a couple of bottle lambs this week that we will butcher when they are big enough...actually I plan to butcher 1 and sell the other two, hopefully getting enough to help pay for a couple of hair sheep, that will be permanent. I really miss my sheeple. Especially Rosemary. She was the absolute best. Anyway I will move Boone outside and the lambs can hang out with Mister, on the other side of the fence from Boone as he is too young to be with young stock. This way he can bond to livestock, and I can take the lambs to the round pen to let Fen do a little herding practice. Win-win.

Fen had a hard month this past month. Because of the roosters attacking him, he developed a fear of chickens. Of course I killed both roosters, so sadly unless I can find a dog friendly one, no chicks for us. He's been attacked by ranch dogs, so he has also developed a little fear and a bit of reactivity to strange dogs (but it doesn't stop him wanting to go out front anyway *sigh*) which is not acceptable in a Service Dog, so we are also working through that. With Boone out back, in the house with me is

Fen's safe space, although he still prefers to be out playing with Boone or standing in the open front doorway, watching all the other dogs. He runs in and shuts the door if he gets scared and watches from the window, then opens the door again when he feels safe. He's the funniest dang dog!

Although he has proven to be pretty resilient, I still want to work at restoring his confidence, because even though his overly exuberant personality used to drive me crazy, I have come to be very fond of it, along with his clownish ways. He's a hard dog not to love, not that I would try. Our beginnings were a little difficult as it was right after Heath's death and Fen had some baggage, but we worked out all the bugs and I am crazy about him. He's a great riding partner, and chore partner, and even though he isn't fond of doing public access still, he's a pretty good Service Dog for his age and limited experience.

I've been making a LOT of sourdough bread, and loving it! The bread bowl recipe wasn't really what I wanted in a sandwich loaf so I finally found another recipe, that I have labelled "THE ONE". It's a little bit of a learning curve to make bread using such a wet dough but it's actually a lot easier than yeast breads. There are a few things I highly recommend having on hand before you start.

Of course you need a really active starter. I keep 2 jars going. One is in the fridge as backup and it gets fed once a week. The other jar I keep out and the day before I make bread, I pour everything out of the jar and either use or dispose of the discard. (don't pour it down the sink because it will clog your pipes when it hardens. It is great for your compost pile as the yeasty beasties help keep it going) Then I feed what is left in the jar which is just the stuff sticking to the sides and the bottom. I feed equal amounts of flour and water by weight to make enough for what I need the next day. It makes for a super happy bubbly starter that doubles itself in just a few hours, even in our very chilly house.

Another must is a kitchen scale, as to be successful, you need to measure your ingredients by weight not volume. I have this one:

I like it because I can fit my mixing bowl on it if I need to, and still read the weights. It's plenty easy to tare and to change units of weight, and easy for me to read, even with my terrible eyesight, which is competing to be as bad as my hearing.

A dutch oven is also necessary. I have two and I'm glad I have 2 because we are easily going through 2 loaves a week and I want to be able to give some away to ranch family...and also try and ship some to my kids as I have heard you can actually ship sourdough without it getting stale.

The first one is just some cheap cast-iron I got on sale through a magazine ad when I was in my 20's, the second was my grandma's and then my mom's. It might even have been my great grandma's originally, as these things last forever and ever. They both measure 10' across at the top so are probably about 9' inside.

Three other things I would not do without are a 

1. a dough scraper. Mine are stainless steel and flat on the bottom, fine for dividing dough but a pita to try and scrap wet, sticky dough out of a bowl. I recommend the plastic, rounded edge ones.

2. bannetons to let the shaped dough sit in to ferment

3. a bread lame to slice it so it will allow the dough to expand when cooking

Amazon has a pretty nicely priced kit with all the stuff except the DO right now.

 I recommend watching a few videos on making SD. especially any that show you how to do the stretch and folds or slap and fold. Then if anyone is interested, just leave me a comment and I will post recipes.

We very nearly lost Mister last month. It began with an odd swelling on his mid belly but it wasn't "pigeon fever" aka "dryland distemper". He also had problems with his mouth. He went completely off feed, right away. I flushed his mouth with peroxide, which he didn't appreciate but it seemed to help. A few days later, he was eating some, but his face and chest was horribly swollen and the edema continued all the way to his sheath and down his hind legs. I couldn't find my thermometer (as my tackroom is pretty much non existent. Stuff is there, but you cannot get to it, much to my annoyance. ) One of the ranch wives who has worked for a vet for years said it looked like either heart or renal failure, but in his condition, we all agreed that 1. he would most likely not survive the trailer ride and 2. we couldn't afford the tests anyway. Nothing was likely to help him.

My friends on FB were all helping me to pray for him, the cowboys were on standby for if he started to suffer. I was praying to not have to make that decision and that if it was his time that he would just lay down and go quietly, with dignity.

A week later, he was eating fine, he was running and bucking and demanding his breakfast before we fed everyone else, and very little swelling was left. Now he is back to his old self, looking and feeling amazing. I am so grateful that he survived whatever this was. I will still have to face that day, sometime, but that day is not today. I pray when it comes, he will go quietly into the night. I pray we will have another summer of riding ahead of us as he and Fen and I had such great times last summer though they were far too few.

lookin' good old man!!

Til next time, your friend Petey, (aka Kim) and the critters

2024 Already?

Those of you who knew me when the blog was active, know that my health took a dump and I quit blogging. There was also a great deal of depression, which comes with my condition, and I would not subject my readers to what I felt or wrote. So in short, I got pretty flakey with my blogging. I will probably continue to be flakey about it, as my condition is incurable, but manageable at times I will try to write when I am able. 

Fen came home shortly after I lost my Heathen. It was a little challenging as his temperament is very different than Heath's was and his energy levels are HIGH. His mind is going constantly and I can hardly keep up. 

He was 5 months old when he came to us, and technically had 3 owners in that short time. He knew how to counter surf and demand bark really well, but at least he was housebroke. So there's that.

Every morning at 5:30, he would demand breakfast, getting louder with every second he had to wait, and of course I had to comply because waking TheMan is a big no-no. Interestingly, his demanding has taken the form of climbing in his crate and quietly waiting to be served by his inferiors. (That's me) 

Also, if I am slow in feeding him, he makes scary faces at me.

Then he would begin his extortion. He would find a plethora of things he knew he shouldn't have, and threaten to destroy them if I didn't "purchase them" with cookies. 

Every cloud has a silver lining. As Fen was consuming a fortune in cookies with his criminal activities, he was also learning to bring me anything he had, that I asked him to, as well as learning to hand me things. It translated really well to his picking up things I drop and handing them back to me, as well as bringing items I request.

Ten months later, I still have to feed him at 5:30 every morning, but now he nuzzles me to wake me up, instead of screaming at me.

 I had a REALLY great summer! I fought like crazy to get stronger. I have been out of the wheelchair for over a year now and I don't want to go back to it. I started in spring by doing a TON of pruning overgrown bushes, and trying to find what plants survived the years of neglect while I was housebound. Not many did. But I still have roses, and hollyhocks seed like crazy here and even though they have overtaken the yard and choked most everything out, they are pretty.I planted annuals and stuff from seed to make me happy, and got a garden in (late, because the stupid pig was living in my garden and TheMan procrastinates a lot, and moving pig was no different) We had lots of squash and tomatoes. I canned straight tomatoes and made a bunch of the best Marinara sauce I have ever tasted. It was too late for the brocolli and peas, the greenbeans were tough and the basil and everything tender was destroyed by a locust invasion. But I. Had. A. Garden. And I have plans for next year. Everything else had a bumper crop. The raspberries were amazing. Fen was picking and eating them off the canes himself. Then there were millions of tiny apricots. (nothing got pruned)Then blackberries. Then more of the best peaches in the world. (Everyone on the ranch agrees, this peach tree is magical) I had tons of beautiful apples, but have no idea what kind because we bought the tree with three different kinds grafted on, but that was when we had goats and they broke into the yard and broke the trees and only this one of the grafts made it. They ate the tags so we are clueless but they are the best apples I ever had. VERY crisp, and both sweet and tart so perfect for cooking, canning and eating. And lastly, my elderberry bush produced tons of beautiful medicinal berries for me to dehydrate to help us battle colds and flu this winter. I'm learning more about natural medicines so am encouraging the yarrow and prickly wild lettuce, and what I always considered weeds, are now going to be given a prime spot in my garden. I spent time with Mister who is 29 this year. He still looks amazing and feels good as well, so we took a couple of rides when we could get Randy to saddle for me. We didn't go far, because the locusts were all over the ranch and Mister wasn't enjoying them jumping up in his face at all, but I am grateful for every second I got to ride. I hope next summer we ride much, much more. I am still battling to gain strength and endurance. I haven’t gained a lot of ground, but today I lifted 59 lb Fen onto the grooming table. ( He’s like Pigpen, he hates to be groomed) The fear of doing this, is that the surgeon who reattached my bicep tendon (which tore completely off of my shoulder while lifting my saddle onto Wimpy’s back) said if I tear it off again, he won’t be able to fix it, because I have had so many rotator cuff tears there is nothing to attach it to. Therefore, I get nervous when I have to use my arms for heavy stuff, like cleaning the floor of the chicken coop after TheMan threw straw down to combat the mud. Anyone who has had livestock, knows what a huge mistake this is. Common sense should tell you that straw in mud turns into adobe brick.As we aren’t building any structures in the near future, adobe or otherwise, I am desperately using a garden fork to peel up the heavy stuff in layers before it’s too late. Then I proceed to push (or pull) the heavy manure bucket full of the stuff to the front of the yard by the garden where Pig is spending the winter, for TheMan to empty. I won’t risk losing the use of my arm for that. :) Then I wrestled Fen and carried him from the end of the couch to the grooming table where I proceeded to clean him up. I had to risk it because his nails were getting too long So I’ve been trying to stay busy between flares. I’ve been cooking, cleaning, painting the kitchen, taking care of meat rabbits aka rabids, training the dogs, etc. I have a lot of sewing projects to complete but my hands need to be in better shape for that. Fen has been helping as he is able and the spirit moves him. Our stove AND washing machine went out in November, right before Thanksgiving, and right before a very good friend came to spend a week. We muddled through just fine though and several weeks later, we had a new stove and new washer/dryer, courtesy of the ranch Last night I made sourdough bread bowls and homemade clam chowder for dinner. The bread bowls I started yesterday as they needed bulk ferment overnight in the fridge. It was a new recipe and it is AMAZING!! I’m posting it here.

 https://myculturedpalate.com/sourdough-bread-bowls/ They really were excellent. I tied tea towels to hold the shape when they were rising for last time before baking, but this recipe was so excellent, I am going to invest in little bannetons for them. We have a new LGD puppy, who is not going to be an actual full time LGD, but a farm dog. When Bruno passed, the predators slaughtered all my chickens and ducks in one night, the same week, as they realized he was no longer here. We now have 5 young hens who are just beginning to lay, and two roosters, soon to be just one…and I am not willing to lose them, so Boone, the Anatolian puppy is here. He weighed 43 lb at 12 weeks of age. Fen is 59 lb at 15 mo and is a little overweight.

 Fen is thrilled to have someone to play with and its working out well, as Boone sleeps outside in his big crate, with the door open. Fen gets to go out when he wants, and in when he wants, Boone is allowed in for a little while each day to socialize with us. I will be using him for counter balance because I have fallen 8 times in the past few months for no apparent reason, and have nearly fallen about 2 dozen other times. Whatever is causing it, (one Dr thinks its a crystal in the ear, another thinks it’s my meds ) Fen is able to pick up on it by sniffing behind my left ear. He checks me out daily and if he only does a cursory scan of my ear, I never have a problem, but on the mornings he is fixated on my L ear, at some point that day, my balance fails me.

It's all a little scary but it is what it is and I will deal with it. 

Meanwhile, Boone has gone from 43 lb to 55 lb in less than a month. He's already bigger than Fen as of today. All I can say is, he grows on ya.

LEFT BEHIND

The summer of '22 and winter of '23 were one of the worst. Both of our sweet Maremma Livestock Guardians died. First Mr Potamus, then only months later, his brother Bruno. On the heels of these losses, softened only by the fact that they were both elderly at 12, came the loss of Heath who was only 7 years old.

Since he was 8 weeks old, we have never been separated except when I was in surgery. We spent every living minute together. I had no idea he was sick, when a lump came up on his chest. Fearing it was a foxtail abscessing, I took him to the vet. A biopsy was done and came back as angio sarcoma. A rare and aggressive cancer. Three weeks later he was gone. I have never been so devastated. I would have given everything I have to have gone with him as the loneliness, the isolation, the hardship of not having his help, the loss of a being I loved so deeply and loved me back unconditionally was excruciatingly painful.

Knowing I could not cope with the isolation here unless I had a dog, at the very least, for company we began looking for a companion. Nothing can ever replace Heathen but I needed something living to spend my days with as I am utterly alone. I only see Randy in the morning while he eats and watches TV, and at night, while he eats and watches TV. The rest of the day I don't hear or see another living thing. Heath's breeder, and the breeder she got his mother from began discussing the situation with Heath. Coincidentally, she had recently repurchased a puppy that had not worked out in its home. He is a very active, highly intelligent, independent puppy. They felt he might make a Service Dog prospect for me so they pitched him and we made the 7 hr drive to pick him up. We enjoyed a too short time with my friend then returned home with Fen. Another oddity. I didn't name either dog. Heath and Fen are both habitats. Fen is a distant cousin of Heath. Fen was a little over 5 mo old.

Fen

Fen quickly began finding jobs for himself. He added a new cycle to the dishwasher, instead of prewash we now have a Fen cycle. I began to attempt to clean up the back yard. The water troughs I used as planters were filled with grass and as I would tug it out and shake the dirt off, Fen would grab another and violently shake the dirt off of his as well. I got a 6" chain saw and began cutting back the overgrown badly neglected rosebushes and he chewed on the canes. Anything to be of service, really. 

Aside from counter surfing and demand barking he didn't know an awful lot other than what his breeder, an amazing woman and a pillar of this breed, was able to teach him.  I began working with him and was surprised at how smart he really is.

It took no time at all for him to learn to hand me things. It took less time for him to realize if he stole something he knew I didn't want him to have, it was a guaranteed swap of treat for item. I awoke every morning to collect contraband on my lap.

He has a very sensitive nose. He can find a toy antler with rack wax on it anywhere, inside or out. I used that to teach him to find my phone and kindle by placing small pieces of tissue with a couple drops of EO inside the case.

He learned the basics of sit, down, stay is barely a concept with him, but TheMan has to have his hip replaced and the ortho wants his teeth worked over first so Fen's first outing was to a dental office. We spent a great deal of time laying on a mat or taking short walks. He actually did pretty well, going from barking at the first two people he saw, to ignoring people coming and going and paying scant attention to two very noisy children in the waiting room. On the way home, we got stuck in Jordan Valley for the night because of a traffic accident blocking the snowy roads.

The following morning we woke up to this:

Life with Fen has been interesting and a bit demanding. He is rarely quiet. But because of him I am forced into activity.  He cheers me up...

 Has helped me make soap to thank the many friends on FB who helped me survive Heathen's loss and donated to the cause so I could afford to buy Fen...

There HAVE been times we both thought I might strangle him...

He is the stealer of socks, neck pillows, tupperware containers, glasses and chairs...

He woke me up enough to finish embroidering my ballcap...

and encouraged me to clean the carpets...

We have done some canning,

and gone to the Dr together, where she was talking with her hands and Fen kept trying to give her a high five...

In 6 short weeks, he has learned to take off my socks and hand them to me, to find my phone and kindle, to pick up anything I drop or ask for by pointing, (I dropped both a flat canning lid and a credit card which he quickly picked up without being asked, as I didn't think it possible) to pick up and put his toys away with some help, to let himself out the back door as well as open and close the bathroom door for me when I am in a wheelchair, how to help me get clothes out of the dryer and a few other simple tasks. As I said, he is exceptionally intelligent and he loves to work. I do believe when he matures he will be a stellar Service Dog. 

I still grieve Heath, I still cry at night because I miss his presence. Fen isn't Heath, Fen is Fen and I love him for who he is, but there is still a void that cannot be filled.

It is going to take time.

I hope to do all the things with Fen this summer that I had planned to do with Heath, starting with riding again.

Til next time,

Petey aka Kim&Fen

 

A Change of Season

When I started this blog, it was Range to Range as I was slowly losing the ability to ride and be out where I wanted to be, and was spending more time in the kitchen, trying out recipes, making milk products and homemade meals in an attempt to fill my days.

As the years have passed, my disease has been looming larger and taking away more and more of what I love in life and leaving me feeling much like an empty shell. I couldn’t blog because my state of mind was nothing I would want to share with anyone, nor anything you would care to read. My life is changing again, so although there will be a little about ranching and livestock, I will share the life I’ve been given, such as it is.

As my readers know, I now am dependent on a Service Dog to help me through the normal activities of my day, that I can no longer manage on my own. I would like to expand a little on how he assists me, as it is doubtful there will be many entries in the future that don’t include Heath.

Unable to bend over and reach the floor anymore, Heath hands me anything I drop (which happens more and more often as my hands become more involved) and anything I point and ask for. On really painful days when I cannot get up, he brings me my pillow and blanket. I consistently forget to take my medications, and mid day cannot remember if I took them or not as I am easily distracted or confused, so Heath brings them to me the minute I wake up, and stays with me until I take them, then he puts them back on the table where he prefers to keep them. That in itself has been a tremendous help. He also brings them to me at night, as there are meds that have to be taken at certain times of the day. I know when it’s almost  bedtime because he hands them to me.

He picks up all the dirty laundry and hands to me so I can put it in the rolling hamper and he takes the clothes out of the dryer as I cannot bend far enough to get them, especially things like socks, where even he has to crawl in to reach them. He’s doing a good job pushing the buttons that open doors for wheelchairs, although I am not yet in need of him to do so. He already does a good job walking along beside a wheelchair as I have to use the scooters in the store, unable to walk that much. Better to get the training done before it becomes critical. There are always new tasks that I find I need to teach him, such as flushing a commercial toilet, helping me to undress, and bring my attention to my scratching as my skin always itches and I tend to scratch till I bleed.
Over the years, I have lost my ability to do many things, and medications as well as disease both changed my body.I no longer wanted to see people or go out. I hated shopping, refused to join the parties on the ranch and Lord have mercy on anyone who points a camera in my direction. I’ve always been a ‘loner’, but I was becoming a recluse. A very unhappy, depressed and pain-wracked recluse. Heath has made huge changes in my life.

After 10 years, I got myself a phone, got a drivers license and bought a car. I enjoy going to town with Heath and doing the shopping or whatever, as he is always so happy to serve and seems to love new places. I no longer suffer from anxiety being out in public, because people tend to focus on Heath, not on me or what I look like.


The boss wants me to get rid of my animals. I had already planned to get rid of most of them as I cannot take care of them anymore, but they were not selling fast enough, so all our cows went to a sale one day, and the sheep another. There's not much reason for the kids to come visit anymore. Their highlights of the trips were gathering eggs, playing with and feeding the lambs, goats and calves, milking the cow and the other stuff they could only do where we lived.

We held back 2 lambs for our freezer, one for the dogs and 2 ewes and the ram to send to a friend we worked a deal with so we will still get our 2 lambs a year. Bruno and Mr Potamus are not very thrilled with this decision, but it wasn’t mine or theirs to make. Without a flock to protect, they now live in the yard and house, much to my dismay, as they constantly loose enormous clumps of white hair on the carpet and make a challenging obstacle course in our very small house for me to try and negotiate. As I am not allowed to seek outside help to get the house and yard clean, which is beyond my abilities, I found my life was easier to just leave the ranch and take a long running road trip with Heath.

It’s been a great month, and has been good for me. TheMan has agreed that I will come home for awhile and then take another road trip whenever life there becomes too overwhelming. I don’t know how long I will be able to exercise this option, as we don’t know when the disease will render me unable to drive, but until then, I hope to make the most of it! I will be able to make up for all the time I lost seeing my grandkids and my kids. I will meet some of the people who have encouraged me on FB for the past several years, and hopefully, I will see parts of the country I’ve never had the opportunity to see.



Here’s to the future!

Safe Behind a Shining Star

Feeling Okay, Hooman?

our walkway to the driveway

It’s been a cold and snowy winter with lots of barometric changes, which of course affect my health. The most I've been able to manage is some laundry, occasional meals, and taking Heath out in the dark and ice at 9 pm every night to put the sheep inside, as the Maremmas are now spending nights in the house as the boss complained he heard barking. Thank God for Heath's help, even with his untrained herding skills he gets the job done for me quickly. We inherited because TheMan blew a gasket one night, unable to get them to cooperate.

We undertook the 4 hour drive to town yesterday to see a shoulder specialist to find out why injuring my bicep by simply lifting my saddle a few months ago should have gotten increasingly worse until I could no longer use my right arm and having so much pain setting in my shoulder. It looks good so far, it’s soft tissue damage that is in the bicep tendon and created a lot of inflammation all the way up under the ball joint and down my arm, so a shot of cortisone in the joint may solve the problem. If not, a second might. and if that doesn’t do it, then we will look at surgical options but i am banking on the cortisone injections.

I had been able to pay off our credit card and Dr bills early so we went to a dealer and bought me a new car. It’s a little new, blue, Subaru and is just what I was looking for. Great gas mileage, 4 wheel or all wheel drive, a back-seat for the Heathen and room for his crate, my suitcase, and sundry other things so I can go on road trips and get away from the ranch I loved so dearly, but has been holding me prisoner because of my limitations. The incredible man I married isn’t thrilled about staying here alone and working for long periods of time, but he understands how this has affected me both physically, emotionally and spiritually. He could hardly miss the tears that leak out now and then. So now I have a few things to get done, like get my license plates, find my new drivers license, and purchase a few things to keep the Heathen in the back, as stuff coming up and hitting the undercarriage still frightens him badly and he jumps into the front, getting twisted and choked in his harness. Not a good scenerio.

We were talking about this yesterday, what an enormous change he has made in my life. I have always been shy, and always been a ‘loner’. Even when I was younger and in shape, I tended to avoid people, when possible. While showing horses for clients I was found either ringside coaching my kids, or at the barn grooming and warming up, but not socializing and having ‘fun’ like so many others. Perhaps that is why it seemed like such a chore. But hey, that’s me. Since getting sick, I have put on so much weight and aged so badly, that I have been ashamed to be seen, so I retreat to my shell and try not to even go out in front of the house unless I absolutely have to. The woman in the mirror is a stranger to me, and I’d rather keep her under wraps. But when going somewhere with Heath, people notice him instead, and talk about him, and my anxiety tends to melt away. And he does garner a huge amount of attention. I could never even consider doing these things without him.

Just in the 2 days we spent in town, all the folk at the dealership spoke to him, and even let him come on my test drive, in spite of the snow and his somewhat raggedy looking undercoat where dirty snow or water had splashed on his leg and belly feathers. He was of course, perfectly behaved and the salesman was impressed with how he jumped into the cargo hold when I asked and quietly laid there for the trip. After purchasing a different car and agreeing to pick it up the next day, we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. The smell of steaks and lots of distractions always make me worry, but I shouldn’t have. Other than wanting to forge ahead of me a little bit to try and meet a youngster passing us (he is absolutely wild about kids) we were seated at a booth across from an elderly couple. I was hoping he would behave like usual, as I was afraid that they might take offense to a dog in the restaurant. Instead, as they got up to leave, the lady tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that he is the best behaved dog she’s ever seen, and they appreciated how he went right under the table and laid quietly when I asked, in spite of all that was going on around us. I really appreciated the compliment to us both.

Heath lays under the table at Texas Roadhouse. His good behavior didn't go unnotced

Celebrating with steak, mmmm

We stayed at Holiday Inn Express in Boise, which I highly recommend. The staff is always super friendly and its always clean and nice. I was out front grabbing stuff out of the truck while Randy got us a room. I had Heath wipe his feet on the mat when entering, which is NOT his favorite thing to do. The man behind the desk said “Well, I guess I will have to take your word that he really is a service dog since his vest says so, even if you have no certification papers”. I asked if they’d been having dog problems and he said yes. I gave him an ADA card that explained there are NO papers on a service dog, they aren’t required to wear a vest, etc. and the easiest way to tell if they are for real is their behavior. It also informed him how to protect their business from an acclaimed service dog that is causing problems. He was really appreciative and said he was going to post the card in the meeting room so he could inform the rest of the staff. I felt good because there are a lot of people taking advantage which causes not only bad feelings toward real teams but increases problems for real teams as well as it can seriously unsettle and damage the confidence of a service dog, which is not allowed to defend himself, to be faced with a poorly trained, barky, aggressive, rude dog of any size or breed, especially when working.

Once in the room, my calm, reserved, well behaved sheppie turned into a whirling dervish, pleased to have had his boots and vest removed and had the two of us in hysterics with his antics. Other than waiting until I had my pjs on, (shorts and a t-shirt) to tell me he needed to go out and do his business…at 25 degrees F, he was a good boy. Out we went, me in my t shirt and snow boots and he  off leash with his happy on. I was only mildly frostbitten when we came back inside.

Next day at the doctors, several people commented and asked to pet him. I had to turn them down because he gets too distracted and wants to play with everyone. After awhile, a man came in, looked our direction for a moment then turned to the lady behind the admissions desk. She asked if she could do anything for him and he said “Yes, I want to buy that dog!” We laughed and I was again, really proud of Heath.

Next was Costco, where we were stopped several times and asked about his breed, then a man came up and said “It’s so nice to see a service dog BEHAVE like a service dog! I’ve trained dogs for 30 years and it’s not hard to recognize a phony or the real thing.” I was wow-ed. Again, none of the anxiety raised itself, because Heath was the focus of attention and I felt safe in the background behind his shining stardom.

What a dog!!

We were next faced with a 4 hour drive home in the dark, in the snow, in a vehicle I was not familiar with. I had a fair idea where the windshield wipers and defroster were as that was my key concern. I had already put the service dog stickers on the window so if we had a wreck, first responders would know to look for him and not to separate us. My car has one of those On-Star kinda deals so it tells me where I left it in the parking lot, if I forgot to lock it, if it's stolen, where it's at, and gets me help if I am broken down or in a wreck. A good option for me, I think. Now if they will just pass reciprocity so you can Concealed Carry across state lines so I am not vulnerable while driving long distances alone, waiting for help to show up in the event of an incident.


I was following TheMan in our embarrassingly dirty truck, knowing Blu Roo would look much like that when we made it home. It is, after all, a ranch, with 50 miles of dirt road leading there. I was pretty nervous,  unable to figure out how to work the radio or anything, and unable to take my eyes off the road, or my white knuckled fingers off the wheel. Only about 30 minutes out, we had a lot of road debris hitting the undercarriage which was unnerving Heath and throwing stuff onto my windshield. I couldn't find a sprayer for the front windows, so increased the wiper speed hoping to get it off. The defroster was running full blast and my vision was awful. Everytime there was an oncoming truck I had zero visibility as the whole windshield would go white. There was no white line on the side or lane markers in the center for that period of time. I kept praying they wouldn't pass me on a turn. We had to follow a snow plow into Jordon Valley and it didn't get any better. Finally, about 2 hours from home, I managed to signal TheMan to pull over at Rome Station as it was about the only place on the 4 hour trip to do so. It turns out the snow plow had put something down on the road that messed up our windshields on the outside so we could not see. He washed it several times and there was a marked improvement. I think both Heath and I hyperventilating probably didn't help the defroster any. I imagine that will probably be my worst trip in Roo, and I still love him, so it should be a brighter future for us, and no...I repeat...NO driving at night!

Pretty soon we will start travels in the Blu Roo. We’ll start small with a 5 hour drive to my brother and niece’s house, then build up to traveling farther for longer periods until I make it down to see my kids. The long, lonely winter is looking a lot better…now if I can just time it between record snow falls and flash floods….